"Music,
often an art/entertainment, is a total social
fact whose definitions vary according to age and
culture," Its oftenly contrasted with noise.
According to musicologist "The border between
music and noise is always ethnically defined which
implies that, even within a single society, this
border does not always pass through the same place;
in short, there is rarely a consensus. By all
accounts there is no single and intercultural
universal concept defining what music might be."

Music is a word whose accepted definitions vary
with time, place and culture. It is said to be
an art, or form of entertainment or recreation activities, it is also often
defined by difference with noise or speech. Some
definitions of music place it explicitly within
a cultural context by defining music as what people
accept as musical.

Often music lists the aspects or elements that
make up music. However, in addition to a lack
of consensus, Molino a musician also points out
that "any element belonging to the total
musical fact can be isolted, or taken as a tactical
variable of musical production." Nattiez
gives as examples Mauricio Kagel's Con Voce [with
voice], where a masked trio silently mimes playing
instruments. In this example sound, a common element,
is excluded, while motion, a less common element,
is given primacy.

Most cultures
use at least part of the concept of preconceiving
musical material, or piece of music, as held in
western classical music. Many but fewer cultures
also include the related concept of explanation,
performing material conceived by others, and less
still the distinct concept of making do, material
which is spontaneously thought of while performed,
not pre-conceived. However, many cultures and
people do not have this distinction at all, using
a broader concept which incorporates both without
discrimination. Improvised music virtually always
follows some rules or conventions and even "fully
composed" includes some freely chosen material.
See also, precompositional. Composition does not
always mean the use of notation, or the known
sole authorship of one individual.